London parks and hills

We had done a few walks like this before and with public transport an option again we were keen to do it again.

The plan was simple, first fast train out of Richmond after 9am (free travel!) then walk through Whitehall Gardens, St James Park, Green Park, Hyde Park, Regent's Park, Primrose Hill and, finally, Parliament Hill in Hampstead Heath.

Being a simple and imprecise plan meant that little could go wrong and only a little did.

Whitehall Gardens were blooming, St Jame's Park was showing off its pelicans and Green Park had some trees. Hyde Park always provides options and while we had not chosen a specific route though, looking at the map afterwards I was surprised to see how little of the park we used. Avoiding the main road though the park was the reason. I hate roads in parks.

Regent's Park gave us a welcome coffee and a short rest. It also gave us bit of a detour with the long bridge closed for major works. Primrose Hill was an easy climb after the cake.

After that we had to put up with the roads and house of Camden Town and Gospel Oak for a while, luckily we found some quiet roads.

We entered Hampstead Heath in the south-east corner so that we could climb Parliament Hill and then head for Hampstead Heath station in the south-west corner. We felt good and the clock was with us so we went further into Hampstead Heath and did some random exploring. That explains the unusual route but not the doubling-back at one point, that was the one mistake of the day.

The main part of the walk ended in The Garden Gate pub where we were lucky to get a table and I had a welcome pub.

There was an epilogue to the walk as a long wait for the Richmond train meant that we had time to walk to the next station, Finchley and Frognal, and that rewarded us with some grand buildings and some final hills.

The statistics for the main part of the walk were distance 17km and time 3:20. I blame the relatively slow pace on the time waiting for pedestrian lights, particularly either side of Hyde Park. Far too often I felt like a second class citizen, and a very distant second too.

A simple route and an excellent walk

This route was thrown together at the last moment after my walking companion clarified his requirements from start at 12pm to finish by 12pm. A quick play suggested that if we started at Radnor Gardens Twickenham, half way between us, we could do the Duke of Northumberland's River, Brentford and Kew Gardens.

We had done all of these sections before but never strung together like this before.

The route was flexible enough to enable us to vary it, either longer or shorter, according to the time we had left.

To put some more certainty into the schedule I booked tickets for Kew Gardens with entry between 11 and 11:45am.

Knowing the route meant we could avoid referring to maps and could walk at some pace while talking about football, politics and Chelsea.

We did have to pause for a few minutes while crossing the A316 when I met someone I knew walking the other way. She is involved in opera and it is always good to bump into people like that.

The healthy timing meant that we could take the scenic route through Brentford, winding along the industrial canal. The wiggles on the map show the intricacies of the route and you need your imagination to add the houseboats, locks, shipyard, wrecked boats, and modern housing. You also need some imagination at times to reassure yourself that this is indeed a formal path and you are not trespassing.

We are both members of Kew Gardens and this was the sort of time that being a member was useful. We could have walked along the main road but as it cost us nothing (extra) to go through the gardens we did that. We were only in the gardens for something like twenty minutes, including queuing up for a coffee.

And we got to Richmond Station a couple of minutes ahead of the 12pm deadline. Unfortunately my companion's partner was not aware of that deadline so was not there to meet him, but that's another story!

This was an excellent walk. It was simple to put together and delivered mightily on providing a wide range of interesting vistas.

Bedfont and back, almost according to plan

I think I am getting the hang of this route though there are still a couple of loose ends that I want to fix before posting it formally on the Ramblers website.

The basic route is fine; River Crane to North Feltham, Duke of Northumberland's River to Bedfont and back along Longford River via Feltham.

The first part I am not happy about is trying to follow River Crane as it runs alongside, but not in, Hounslow Heath. The maps on the information boards suggest that there is a path that follows the river closely but I have not been able to find it and I was further away than I would have liked at times, though never that far. It does not help that the river runs underground for a while.

The second part is on the way back and it is where to go once Longford River hits A316 where it then disappears behind houses more or less all the way to Bushy Park. This time I trekked along A316 to revisit River Crane but I don't want to advertise that as the best route.

That is also the section where a White Van Man inexplicably chose to swerve and drive at me when I walking on the other side of the road.

The statistics of the walk, slightly underestimated by me forgetting to start tracking, are good for one of my long walks, 25 km and 5 hours, and the final polished route will have multiple join and escape point so that people can pick the amount of walking that they want to do.

An unexpected high-point was soon after I entered the problematic section, somewhere between Hounslow Heath and Pevensey Road Nature Reserve, where I saw a wild deer. Judging by its small size it was a muntjac, there was no parent nearby to suggest that it was a fawn but I am not even a novice let alone an expect.

That was also the quietest section of the walk, it always is, despite providing wonderful scenes like this.

It also helped that it had not rained much at all in recent weeks and so a lot of the mud had gone. There was enough left to remind me just how wet it can be.

Two of my favourite sections of this multi-part walk are not on any of the maps that I use, including Ordnance Survey. One is a clearly new path that follows the Duke of Northumberland's River west from A312, which runs north from Feltham, to Bedfont.

The best thing about the various walks taking in River Crane, Duke of Northumberland's River and Longford River is the range of possibilities offered by these rivers and the many parks along the way so that no two walks need be the same. The worst thing is that the rivers have a habit of hiding from time to time forcing you to walk along main roads and through urban areas.

Overall though, there are far more good bits than bad bits and, in my opinion, these routes are the best walking routes in West London.